Sri Lanka: Protests on Fourth Anniversary of Easter Bombings
Thousands of Sri Lankans held a protest Friday in the capital city of Colombo to demand justice for Apr. 21, 2019, Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people and wounded some 500 more.
Facts
- Thousands of Sri Lankans held a protest Friday in the capital city of Colombo to demand justice for Apr. 21, 2019, Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people and wounded some 500 more.1
- Protesters want the government to uncover who's responsible for the suicide bombings of two Catholic churches, one Protestant church, as well as three tourist hotels that killed 42 foreigners from 14 countries.2
- Sri Lanka's Catholic Church has questioned the slow pace of both domestic and international investigations, including by the Vatican and UN. Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith called the bombings a "grand political conspiracy" rather than just a religious extremist attack.3
- Communication failures between then-Pres. Maithripala Sirisena and then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe — members of opposing parties — have been blamed for authorities not acting on foreign intelligence received before the attacks.1
- As a result of their failures, the nation's Supreme Court ordered Sirisena to pay 100M rupees ($273K) from his personal funds and secretary to the Ministry of Defense at the time to pay 210M rupees ($574K). Wickremesinghe is now the president.2
Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2Independent, and 3The Hindu.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by Daily Mirror. Despite hundreds of suspects having been interviewed and multiple investigatory commissions established, the Sri Lankan government has failed to achieve justice for the devastating attack. Though some politicians were forced to pay fines, financial penalties have done nothing to truly hold the murderers accountable. If other countries can quickly prosecute and convict suspects for far lesser crimes, why can't Sri Lanka punish suicide bombers and the government officials who allowed them to kill hundreds of people?
- Narrative B, as provided by Daily News. Though it could take years, given there are dozens of defendants and thousands of individual charges, the Sri Lankan Attorney General's department has already begun its prosecution of the alleged attackers. This investigation has been complicated as the terrorists and their families are under the prosecutorial microscope, which shows how much information authorities must sift through before justice can be served. This investigation is proceeding accordingly.
